Steam cooking of food, particularly steam cooking of certain vegetables is a well known art. Commonly available devices for this purpose are generally known as “Vegetable Steamers”. A simple “Vegetable Steamer” typically consists of a cooking container with a “Basket” that fits within the container closing its opening, and a cover that fits the opening of the basket. The basket has a perforated bottom and may also have a perforated sidewall. These perforations are small enough to prevent food particles from passing through. They are also sufficiently large and numerous to allow steam generated by water being boiled in the container to pass through the perforations and into the basket. To steam food, a quantity of water is placed into the cooking container, which is placed on a heater where the water is made to boil and produce steam. Food to be steamed is placed into the basket, the basket is placed into the container producing steam, and the cover is placed on the basket subjecting the food in the basket to continuous steam until it has attained a desirable edible state.
Many specific devices exist, all generally based on the common principle of steaming food/vegetable items from room temperature, or a frozen state, until they are deemed to be edible by the cook.
The method of steaming vegetables employed by state of the art “Steamers” can be characterized as a single step method. The basket containing the food initially at room temperature, or in a frozen state, is immersed in steam and held within this steam until the food items are deemed to be cooked adequately.
These conventional steamers suffer numerous problems and disadvantages, such as variable or unpredictable cooking times and uneven cooking. In view of these and other problems, while steaming food may be a nutritionally desirable process, steaming may not be used as readily as it might be if results were predictable, reliable and easily attained. Accordingly, the inventor has recognized a need for new or improved methods and apparatus for steaming food items.